Taylor Wimpey fined £25,000 after death of 18-year-old apprentice

Taylor Wimpey Developments (formerly Taylor Woodrow Developments) has been ordered to pay a total of £50,000 after an 18-year-old apprentice was crushed against a silo.

Self-employed bricklayer and apprentice Grant Meyrick, 18, was working on a housing development at Trentham Lakes South, Stoke-on-Trent, while studying at Stoke-on-Trent College.

On 8 August 2003 the vehicle normally used to transport mortar around the site to bricklayers was out of action, so tubs were loaded into the front bucket of a backhoe loader.

As Meyrick and a colleague waited at the bottom of a mortar silo, the loader approached, skidded to a stop and a bucket on the front of the loader trapped him against one of the legs of the silo. He died from internal crush injuries later that month.

Taylor Wimpey pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay costs of £25,000 at Stoke Crown Court yesterday.

Commenting on the case, HSE inspector David Brassington said: "In the area of the mortar silos there were no physical precautions provided to adequately segregate pedestrians from moving vehicles, such as barriers or vehicle wheel stops.

"Had basic health and safety precautions been observed and risk assessment undertaken then it is most unlikely that such a fatality would have occurred."